WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, today joined children, parents, grandparents and children’s advocates in a rally and march in support of protecting children as health care reform is debated in the Senate. Senator Casey joined Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, to stress the need to ensure health reform legislation meets the needs of millions of uninsured and underinsured children in Pennsylvania and around the country.
“Although we still have a long way to go, we are coming into the final and most important stages of the health care reform battle,” Senator Casey said. “As we reach this critical time, I will continue to be guided by the principle that not one child in this country can be worse off because of health care reform. I will continue to work in the Senate to ensure that health care for children is comprehensive, affordable and simple to get and keep. Every child in America deserves this kind of health care and now is the time to ensure it – for today and for the future.”
The rally launched a weeklong series of “stroller brigades” in 21 other cities across the United States highlighting the need to take care of children in health care reform coordinated by the Children’s Defense Fund.
Senator Casey has been a strong advocate for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) since his father helped create the Pennsylvania program on which the federal program is based. He was a leading advocate for the historic expansion of CHIP earlier this year. And he has been a vocal opponent of the provisions in the original Finance Committee bill that would have dismantled the program.
Senator Casey spearheaded a letter signed by six other senators urging the Finance Committee to support the amendment by Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) that preserved CHIP. He recently hosted a widely-attended briefing on the importance of children’s health care. Senator Casey gave numerous floor speeches on the need to do no harm to children in the health care reform debate. And he actively lobbied his Senate colleagues and the White House on the importance of maintaining CHIP.
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